Ummi Hafilda Ali

The Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trials are a source of considerable political controversy in Malaysia.

The first trial was held in 1998, and resulted in former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim being convicted, and given a nine-year prison sentence.

In 1998, a book, 50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi PM ("50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Become Prime Minister") was circulated among members of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) General Assembly, containing graphic allegations as well as accusations of corruption against Anwar.

Anwar was fired from the Cabinet on 2 September 1998, amid police reports that he was under investigation.

The following day, he was expelled from UMNO.

Munawar Anees, Anwar's former speechwriter, and Sukma Darmawan Sasmita Atmadja, Anwar's adoptive brother, were arrested under suspicion of engaging in homosexual acts.

Five days later, they were given a jail sentence of six months after pleading guilty to "unnatural sex" with Anwar.

They later recanted their confessions, and appealed the sentence, claiming to have been coerced into pleading guilty.

Anees made a statutory declaration to that effect.

On 29 September 1998, Anwar appeared in court and pleaded innocent to charges of corruption and sodomy.

A photo of Anwar with a black eye (incurred from a beating by then Inspector General of Police Rahim Noor) and one hand raised became a symbol of the political opposition in many reformasi posters.

The black eye was explained by Mahathir Mohamad and Rahim Noor as being "self-inflicted" and caused by "pressing a glass over his eyes".

Only after a Royal Commission was convened did Rahim Noor admit that he had administered the beating to Anwar.

On 14 April 1999, Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption and, on 8 August 2000, nine years in prison for sodomy.

The sentences were to be served consecutively, and Anwar was given no credit for the six months he spent in jail during the trial.

The following year, Anwar's corruption conviction was upheld by Malaysia's Court of Appeal.

In July 2002, Anwar lost his final appeal against the corruption conviction in the Federal Court.

This verdict was overturned in 2004, resulting in Anwar's release from prison.

Rahim apologised for the incident in August 2005.

Rahim Noor was eventually charged for the assault and was given a two-month prison sentence and fined 2,000 ringgit (SGD571.40).

During the trial, a mattress was presented to court, supposedly stained with Anwar's semen.

This was submitted as DNA evidence of Anwar's sexual acts.

Anwar denied having anything to do with the mattress, although the DNA tests came out positive.

Lim Kong Boon, a DNA chemist, testified during the trial that DNA taken from 10 of 13 semen stains on the mattress matched Anwar's DNA.

The defense team implied that DNA samples may have been taken from Anwar, while unconscious, after his beating in police custody, to create false forensics evidence to frame Anwar; however, High Court Judge Augustine Paul accepted that DNA evidence.

During the trial, Mahathir appeared on Malaysian television in a special appearance to explain the arrest of his deputy.

This was one of several occasions in which Mahathir declared Anwar guilty of sodomy and homosexual acts, even as the trial still was underway.

The government included the statements of the purported victims of Anwar's sodomy attacks, evidence that was widely considered to be tainted.

Furthermore, the prosecution was unable to accurately decide on a date that the alleged acts of anal sex had occurred—the government originally alleged that the sodomy had occurred inside a building that had not been constructed at the time of the alleged event.

Furthermore, the Attorney General's prosecution team (headed by Abdul Gani Patail) also submitted a scenario in which Munawar Anees took an overnight flight from Britain all the way to Malaysia to be sodomised by Anwar, and flew back to Britain after that.

The infamous "stained mattress" that was taken in and out of court over 20 times throughout the duration of the trial, was supposedly the same one that Anwar did his homosexual acts and had extramarital sex on.

However, according to the evidence, the sexual acts had taken place on the mattress a few years ago, and yet the DNA evidence obtained from it were rather recent in age.

While being the leader of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition, Anwar was charged in 2008 with sodomising a male aide.

However, Munawar's appeal was rejected by the High Court on 29 October 2008 upholding his guilty sentence.

Two of Anwar's secretaries, Ezam Mohamad and Mohamad Azmin Ali, were both held separately as part of police investigations into the "50 Reasons" book.

Both were later released.

He was tried in 2010 and 2011 and, in January 2012, was acquitted.

In March 2014, the acquittal was overturned by the Court of Appeal, which convicted him and imposed a sentence of five years' imprisonment.

Anwar appealed to the Federal Court, which in February 2015 re-affirmed the conviction and sentence.

Anwar served the sentence in Sungai Buloh Prison in Selangor before being pardoned on 16 May 2018.